Entrepreneurs of the week: Apple's ex-boss, Red Hat's CEO; and a pioneering VC

Entrepreneurs who caught our eye: John Sculley, who famously fought with Steve Jobs at Apple; Jennifer Fonstad, the pioneering woman VC; Jim Whitehurst, the boss at open source software giant Red Hat; and entrepreneurs from Austin and San Francisco.

Click through to catch a glimpse of other entrepreneurs with big business plans.

Apple and everything else

Who: John Sculley, PepsiCo, Apple, MetroPCSWhere: South FloridaWhat: John Sculley's career is littered with many successes and one epic showdown. He's been CEO of PepsiCo and Apple, and was founder of MetroPCS. While at Apple, he fought Steve Jobs over the rollout of the MacIntosh, and was eventually ousted to make way for Jobs' return.He says: “If I had been born a few decades later, I would never have worked for a large corporation like Pepsi. They used to call me the high-wire act, because I was always getting jobs that were way over my head. I’m the sort of personality that’s very comfortable in high-risk environments. With Apple, I knew it was high-risk, but I was totally captivated by Steve Jobs’ brilliance, vision and sense of design.”Extra: He's working on a project now that will help him scale mentoring for entrepreneurs.

Who: Ken Jennings, Mr. Rekey, Mr. Garage DoorWhere: AustinWhat: Jennings oversees Mr. Rekey, a franchised locksmith company headquartered , north of Austin in Pflugerville that serves 20 cities in 10 states and will reach $8 million in revenue this year. Jennings founded that company out of the trunk of his car with $500 in 1995. He loves to tell his own entrepreneurial story, but loved even more the chance he got to go to a private island with Richard Branson and listen to the billionaire's tales.He says: ““In my opinion, he’s the ultimate entrepreneur. What was the experience like? Life-changing. Freakin’ awesome.””Extra: Jennings and several other entrepreneurs made the trek to take part in discussions with a group of scholars from Oxford University who were there to speak to Branson about solving the world’s biggest problems.

Who: Jim Whitehurst, Red HatWhere: RaleighWhat: In addition to leading the open source software giant, Whitehurst is an entrepreneur-advising, cloud-computing evangelist who once aspired to be a pro football player.He says:"I’ve always been interested in technology. My first job was when I was 16 and worked as a part-time computer programmer for a stockbroker in Columbus, Ga. I had been interested in computers for a couple of years at that point."
Extra: The best advice he ever received was to tell the straight truth without sugar coating.

Who: Jennifer Fonstad, Aspect VenturesWhere: Silicon ValleyWhat: Jennifer Fonstad is one of the most experienced women venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, investing nearly 17 years at Draper Fisher Jurvetson before co-founding Aspect Ventures with Accel Partners veteran Theresia Gouw.
She says: "I would love to have dinner with Jesus. I would love to have dinner with Prometheus. I would love to have dinner with Nelson Mandela. These are people who thought hard about social conditions and social interactions and human conditions and how to enable people to be thoughtful, caring and happy."
Extra: She is a world traveler who has taught in Kenya, trekked after wild gorillas in Africa and now serves as chairperson of the Somaly Mam Foundation, which focuses on ending sex slavery of underage girls around the world.

Who: A.J. Forsythe, iCrackedWhere: Redwood City, CaliforniaWhat: AJ Forsythe turns wrecked iPhones into a brisk repair business that is already in nearly a dozen countries.
He says:: Of his biggest mistake in the early days, “My co-founder (Anthony Martin) and I mistakenly thought we should hire other college students to do this. They were just looking for beer money, not the most serious about their business.”
Extra: iCracked has established an extensive interview process. Hiring the right people is expensive, he said. Hiring the wrong people is too expensive.